Press release announcing the publication of the book 'DAB Digital Radio: Licensed To Fail' by author Grant Goddard, issued by Radio Books on 27 September 2010.

1. New Book Predicts Failure Of DAB Digital Radio
LONDON, 27 SEPTEMBER 2010. “Digital radio switchover is unlikely to ever happen in the
UK” writes radio specialist Grant Goddard in his new book ‘DAB Digital Radio: Licensed
To Fail’ published 1 October 2010 by Radio Books in the UK and US.
Goddard uncovers a secret deal struck between the government and the UK commercial
radio industry to force DAB radio upon the British public. In return for the radio industry
promising to press ahead with DAB, the government bowed to pressure from the largest
commercial group to amend the law so that its most profitable national FM radio licence
could be renewed without a public auction.
Goddard also exposes a wealth of inaccurate and distorted data published by radio industry
lobbyists as part of their campaign to convince the government and consumers that take-up
of DAB radio has been a success in the UK and overseas.
However, while the radio industry was assuring the government of its commitment to DAB as
‘the future of radio’, Goddard’s book reveals that the largest commercial radio group was
quietly closing its digital radio stations and selling off its investments in DAB radio licences.
Goddard estimates that the UK radio industry’s investment to date in the DAB radio system
is almost £1 billion and has contributed significantly to the current lack of profitability in the
commercial radio sector. He concludes that UK radio’s misplaced faith in European DAB
technology has destroyed the viability of much of the UK’s previously profitable local
commercial radio industry.
Written as diary entries between 2008 and 2010, Goddard’s 316-page book uses charts and
graphs to chronicle a critical period in DAB radio’s implementation in the UK. The
government had launched a number of initiatives intended to solve the problem of slow
consumer take-up of DAB radio – the Digital Radio Working Group, the Digital Britain
consultation, Digital Radio Upgrade and the Digital Economy Bill. The book documents these
efforts and their culmination in the last-minute legislation of the Digital Economy Act during
the final days of the outgoing Labour government in 2010.
-----Author Grant Goddard is a London-based media analyst specialising in the radio
broadcasting sector. For thirty years, he has worked in the radio industry as a senior
manager and consultant, in the UK and overseas, and has written extensively about the
radio business for consumer and trade magazines.
Radio Books publishes books and reports about the radio broadcasting industry for the
consumer and professional markets. Radio Books can be purchased from Amazon (UK and
US) and other online book retailers.
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DAB DIGITAL RADIO: LICENSED TO FAIL
GRANT GODDARD
Radio Books, London
978 0 9564963 0 0
paperback 297x210 mm, 316 pages
1 October 2010
media, broadcasting, radio, technology, DAB, digital radio
book excerpts here
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